- CENTRE-SUD -

Décembre 2014 - Avril 2015@ Coop Le Milieu

History of the Neighbourhood

The Centre-Sud neighbourhood sits east of downtown Montréal, between St-Hubert and Papineau, and between Sherbrooke and the St-Laurence.* The Centre-Sud is officially located within the Ville-Marie borough, but with a unique history and community-identity all its own.

This neighbourhood first started to develop in the 18th century. It began as industrial warehouses along the canal, and soon residential spaces followed, along with community spaces including schools and churches. The neighbourhood became more densely populated with industrialization, and the population reached 80,000 by the early 20th Century and 100,000 by the 1940s.

After the war, mass deindustrialization prompted many of the factories and warehouses to move to the periphery of the city, and the living standards of the Centre-Sud began to decline. Some development and revitalization plans for the city also forced residents to relocate.

Considering all this, one thing can be said about the Centre-Sud today: there is no shortage of community organizations dedicating their time to taking care of their own. Today their mark is seen all over the working-class neighbourhood as they host community events in the various little parks scattered throughout this urban grid (I'm told that many of these parks were created after fires destroyed the structures that previously occupied those spaces... just another testament to how this neighbourhood sees the opportunity in hardship.), in their block parties, in their annual spring-clean-up day. These organizations often collaborate with each other, making Centre-Sud a neighbourhood that realizes its potential for transformation and taking care of their neighbours.

* The Centre-Sud officially contains the Village, but for the purposes of this project, the Centre-Sud quilt represents the area between Sherbrooke and Maisonneuve, as the Village will eventually have its own Quilted/Quartier.

Coop Le Milieu

Coop Le Milieu is a solidarity cooperative/art hive. This cozy ethical café and community art studio is nuzzled away on the corner of Rue Robin and Rue Beaudry (for now!). The mirrored windows don't give much away from the outside, but anyone courageous enough to venture through the doorway is greeted with cheerful smiles and a room full of potential art waiting to be manifest!

Le Milieu is an invitation. An invitation to connect, to create, to share our stories, our crafts and good food with one another. An invitation to let our hands do what they do best, but might have forgotten. An invitation to learn and to teach. An invitation to realize we have something of value that someone else wants to learn from us. An invitation to consider the world through a new lens: one that is paint spattered and has the grubby fingerprints of a child's hand all over it.

This space challenges us to think differently. Here we are asked to reconsider the definition of artist: art is everywhere, its not just in the gallery. Art is drawing, painting, sewing, dancing, music-making, sure. Art is also cooking, storytelling, gardening. Art is creating community. Art is living our lives with intention and consciousness, knowing that our every action is shaping our surroundings. You are an artist in whatever you do!

Here we are asked to reconsider value: name your own price for the art materials you buy at the friperie. We know what we would pay for this item at Dollarama and at Michael's. What will you pay for it when you know the money is going to the creation of resilient communities? How can we rethink economy so that it works for us?

Here we are asked to reconsider limitations: look at this little space, this space that could! We know it looks small, but look at everything we can do here! We teach permaculture, and yoga, and traditional diets! We have improv workshops, puppet-theater performances, afro-cuban dance parties! We make giant marionettes that can barely fit through the door! We make things out of junk that will surprise you! Here, sometimes we forget to even consider limitations, because we know we will transcend them anyways.

Speaking of limitations, at the time that Quilted/Quartiers was collaborating with Coop Le Milieu, there was no paid staff, no grants or external funding, and yet the space was as lively as ever! As of September 2014, the Coop is being run by a team of fantastic volunteers (roughly 30 or so) who care about the power cheap art has to create rich communities. These volunteers come from all over the city (and the world). They have claimed this little corner-front on Rue Robin as a true commons. This space belongs to everyone, and everyone who walks through the door leaves their mark.

This is a place where dreamworlds come together, where we take their hand and walk through the door into our realworlds, ready to manifest the communities we dream of.

I came to know of Coop Le Milieu one sunny afternoon in a community permaculture garden in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve while gluing sparkly-cd-shard-fins onto a ginormous rainbow fish. We were preparing for Montreal's first 100en1jour, when we would have a giant marionette parade with folks from La Ruche D'art St-Henri, St-Raymond's Cheap Art Collective (NDG) and Coop Le Milieu.

Coop Le Milieu was just one year old, and already they were expanding their sense of community beyond the geographic boundaries of Centre-Sud, to art-making anywhere.

Later that afternoon, as the sun became a golden 6 o'clock orb in the sky, we paraded our giant rainbow fish down into the metro, home across town. The looks of awe and joy were enough to hook me on public art, and especially giant marionettes for good.

Now, years later, Coop Le Milieu and I have become old friends. Its a wonder and a joy to see the Coop change little by little every time I walk through the doors. Its pure magic to see people discovering the space for the first time. In their faces, I see my face, as I walked through the door for the first time: knowing, right away, that this space would become a very important catalyst for my life in Montreal.

And so it was a real pleasure to collaborate with the artists, volunteers, members, participants, and friends of Coop Le Milieu for the Quilted/Quartier: Centre Sud. The pieces of this quilt have been made by folks who know and love this neighbourhood; their stories of this place are secretly woven into each little detail and touch.

The spirit of up-cycle and cheap art is alive and well in this quilt. I love how the colours and textures flow between pieces that were made unknowing of each-other. It shows the strength of the connections between the folks who frequent this space.

I love how the participants took the grid-block design of this community-map and transformed it. The grid has become an unrecognizable array of colour and texture. It has become a map of the community as these participants dream it to be, collectively.

The pieces of this Quilted/Quartier praise the green spaces of the neighbourhood and challenge the bare concrete surfaces. They celebrate community spaces like the coop, the eco-quartier, and the parks. They celebrate the spirit of togetherness that thrives at Coop Le Milieu. And most of all, they reflect the artistic identity of their makers.